According to Nicolau Sevcenko, in his book "Literature as Mission", “The word organized in discourse incorporates in itself (...) all sorts of hierarchies and frameworks of intrinsic value to the social structures from which they emanate.” (p.19-20). Thus, in a simple reading gesture, different histories and societies intertwine, at different moments in their evolution. The dialogue that is established puts in contact different social and individual experiences, old and contemporary, through the material support in which the text of the book is constituted, and the repertoire of the reader. In this dialogic perspective established between the written text and its readers, this paper seeks to observe the relationships established between Brazilian society (late nineteenth century) and the literature of the period represented by Machado de Assis in the short story O alienist.
Machado de Assis' writings have given rise to a considerable number of studies over the years. There are several readings developed, either by literary critics or scholars from nearby areas, and it is possible to find from analyzes that privilege a psychological study of the author from the creation of his fictional characters, Lúcia Miguel Pereira, or even those who perceive the narrative as a reflection of the real. Faced with such varied possibilities, we will highlight those studies that seek to reflect on author and work in a particular historical-social context.
In this perspective of analyzing the literary work as a result of the judgment of a social actor, we use the thought of Sidney Challoub that he claims to find in the Machado's writings not only the storyteller's thought but his link with the historian's role through the literary strategies used by the narrator “...invented characters, dialogues and, (...) narrators who seemed to live and express only what was strictly compatible with the expectations of the readers/gents. By doing this, the wizard achieved his goal, all of his, of telling the truths he wanted about Brazilian society in the 19th century.”. In this way, we analyze the plot of the tale the alienist as a possible discourse, and not as the creation of a genius that transcends his time and social space.
Published in the newspaper A ESTAÇÃO between 1881 and 1882, the central theme leads the reader to an eternal reflection on the limits between insanity and reason; the power of the word, the madness of science and the relationships established in the society of the period. In this case, by using the question of madness as an allegory, Machado's tale contains new possibilities for study, for be an account that introduces the reader to the rituals of subservience, flattery and patronage present in Brazil at the end of the century XIX. In contrast, the text questions the power of evolutionary, positivist, and socio-Darwinian scientific theories brought from Europe that, at this historic moment, would indicate the answers to all the ills of this civilization in search of progress.
In general lines, the short story (divided into thirteen chapters) presents the city of Itaguaí; and how the arrival of physician Simão Bacamarte, presented as the “... son of the nobility of the land and the greatest physician in Brazil, Portugal and Spain...” (p.273), he would modify the existing relationships drawing on the power gained through the use of experiments and thinking scientific.
At first, we came across the scientific personality of Simão Bacamarte present even in the choice of his wife “...D. Evarist was poorly made up of features, far from regretting him, she thanked God for she didn't run the risk of disregarding the interests of science in the exclusive, small and vulgar contemplation of consort.” (p.273-274). With this statement, the author reinforces the idea of the short story as a parody of the scientism present in the ideas transplanted to Brazil through representatives of the local elite, such as Simão Bacamarte, who developed their studies in Europe.
In this way, we follow the creation of Casa de Orates, or Casa Verde, where the alienist defines his objective “The main thing in my work of Casa Green is to deeply study madness, its different degrees, classify its cases, finally discover the cause of the phenomenon and the universal remedy.” (p.277).
During the process of selection and classification of the insane, which will be several throughout history, we noticed another face of the tale, among the alienated we noticed the crazy “for love”, those with a mania for grandeur who recited their entire genealogy, or made speeches in Latin and Greek, cases of religious monomania among so many others. Thus, the asylum becomes not only a place of confinement for the insane, but a portrait of the current society with its delimited and classified social strata.
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Following the cataloging of the insane, the criteria used are so many that at a given moment, people considered “normal” become an object of study. The distrust in relation to the procedures used that did not clearly establish who would be alienated generates, at a certain moment, the revolt of the local population. The Canjicas Revolt, led by the barber Porfírio, receives support not only from the population, but also from the Dragões and some councilors. In this process, we contemplate the whole new structure created by Machado, the barber at a certain moment perceives “the government's ambition to emerge in him; then it seemed to him that, by demolishing Casa Verde, and overthrowing the influence of the alienist, he would come to take over the chamber, dominate the other authorities and constitute himself lord of Itaguaí” (p.302).
A great example from real life, the barber who, in the stipulated social organization, would not be able to ascend socially, uses the revolt for his own benefit more than once. After winning the dispute over Casa Verde, barber Porfírio once again induces Bacamarte to question his commitment to science. This should be articulated with the policy and both should be aimed at the society of Itaguaí: “Let us unite and the people will know how to obey” (p.309). However, "legitimate politics" is not the purpose of Bacamarte's research, but the way in which the barber changed the situation in own benefit reaching the post of "village protector", and at the same time articulating new power alliances that did not prevent a new revolt generated once again by a barber, João Pina, and consequently the restoration through a force sent by the viceroy.
After successive revolts and changes in power, the only institution that remains is Casa Verde; and the alienist, in his unshakable faith in establishing the primacy of reason in Itaguaí, continues to develop his theories and apprehending at various times some alien specimens according to the scientific postulate current. In this way, the science that would be one of the maintenance mechanisms of this society, becomes its biggest questioner; the one who reveals the uselessness of relations of favor through the “man of science” Simão Bacamarte. The latter perceives the failure of the real system and, as he does not accept it, ends up placing himself as the only alienated person in the story.
There is a great concern in the work in fixing the problem of the universal man, seeking inspiration in everyday actions and in the common man.
The author penetrates the characters' consciousness, probing their functioning and capturing the contradictory impulses of human beings, unmasking the game of social relationships, emphasizing the contrast between essence and appearance, where financial success is the goal primordial. Man is no longer the center, but becomes part of a system. There are some striking features in the tale, which we cannot let go unnoticed: apprehension of reality, the non-self at the level of reality and description, the precision of details, occupying the central place as a technique narrative.
The short story would present the great paradox of Brazilian society in the 19th century. In this period, science would have established the primacy of reason and rationalism in Europe. These scientific, positivist, evolutionist and socio-Darwinist ideas would be transplanted to Brazil in order to coexist with the existing structures. In this way, the social analyzes present in the short story, mainly in relation to the behavior of the characters who use flattery and flattery to achieve their goals would recreate the concept of madness as a parody of order desired. According to José Maurício G. de Almeida in his text Da Humana Comédia or No Teatro em Itaguaí, “The alienist is not a parody of psychiatric science or asylums, in the realist sense of the term, but an allegory, elaborated with the finest and most penetrating irony about human nature and the discords of the world". (p.172)
Using Nicolau Sevcenko's thinking again, “Literature (...) speaks to the historian about history that didn't happen, about the potentialities that didn't work, about the plans that didn't materialized. She is the sad but sublime testimony of men who were defeated by the facts.”. In this sense, we emphasize the existing links between fiction and reality as another necessary testimony to the understanding of history itself. said, with the difference that we are using another form of discourse that sometimes gives voice to the “silenced” layers in historiography traditional.
Columnist Marysther Oliveira do Nascimento Master's Student at the Graduate Program in Literature and Cultural Diversity – UEFS
